


Death Wears A Mask

by Demmora



Category: Dishonored (Video Game)
Genre: High Chaos, High Chaos Corvo Attano, ask box challenge, but it so so goooood, canon depictions of violence, for high chaos week 2016, high chaos hurts my heart, rats eating people, vengeance solves everything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-29
Updated: 2016-06-29
Packaged: 2018-07-19 03:03:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7341964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Demmora/pseuds/Demmora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Whatever you want…” Burrows begins, and the sound the other man makes is so inhuman it takes Burrows a moment to realize it’s laughter coming from behind that horrible skeletal mask. “Whatever you want…we can come to something…you don’t have to do this…<i>please</i>!”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Death Wears A Mask

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to @neriad13 on tumblr 13 for the prompt: The Lord Regent looks Death in the eye as the rats come for him at last.

He’d thought the doors would hold him, thought the walls of light might burn him out. But Attano is dancing to his own tune now, a waltz to which only he knows the steps, and all others must stumble and fall. He always had been graceful, even Burrows could give the man that. But now the younger man moves with a fluidity that is not of this world, and he pulls the shadows with him—like a harbinger of the end.

Alarms blare outside, the sound of panicked screaming rising in the night to create a symphony of chaos and despair. He had never been a particularly religious man, but the phrase _The Outsider Walks Among Us_ sounds like a prayer now, compared to what is coming for him.

And he is coming, he can hear him. Which means that Attano _wants_ him to. Burrows should have killed him while he had a chance…but Campbell…Campbell had been so sure they could use him. Sometimes Burrows wonders what had gone through the High Overseer’s head in those final moments before Attano’s blade severed it from his shoulders—but not before he’d very carefully taken the time to mark him for a heretic. Panic? Fear? Had he thought somehow to bargain? Every man had a price, after all. Even now Burrows wonders what he can offer…but there is nothing. His own voice can still be heard echoing in the courtyard, condemning him for the plague, for the Empress’ death…all his power… _gone_.

The door opens, and it’s as though a literal whirlwind grips the room, tearing at the books on the lower level, the Overseer’s scream nothing but a muffled yelp to the sound of the tallboy falling, exploding in a shower of whale oil that burns everything it touches. And suddenly he’s _there_ , and his stillness is more unnerving than anything else. Blood drips from the blade in slow viscous globules, as though it’s never been cleaned, as though the blade itself is weeping. But it’s the left hand that draws his eye, the hand Attano holds up cradled to his chest in an empty gesture, fingers splayed as though holding something precious in the unnatural arch of his fingers. 

_Death wears a mask,_ Burrows thinks, it’s what everyone had been saying for all these months… _death wears a mask, and comes with outstretched hand._

“Whatever you want…” Burrows begins, and the sound the other man makes is so inhuman it takes Burrows a moment to realize it’s laughter coming from behind that horrible skeletal mask. “Whatever you want…we can come to something…you don’t have to do this… _please_!”

He watches as the blade folds away, Attano’s hands falling limply to his sides twitching briefly. He’s thinner than Burrows remembers, shoulders hunched inward in a predatory curl, like a dog that’s been beaten too many times and expects the next blow. Little tremors and tics betray him, but when he reaches out with his left hand, fingers curling into a fist, his arm is steady.

“I know.”

_And suddenly there’s rats, so many rats, rats everywhere, clawing at him biting at him swarming up him like wasps, angry red eyes and sharp little teeth tearing at his flesh and clothes, he opens his mouth to scream and they pour in, boring out his eyes…_

Attano stands over him, outstretched hand returning to his chest like an injured claw. The last thing Burrows sees through all the blood is Attano reaching up to remove his mask. Somehow the smile is worse…

**Author's Note:**

> Come talk to me on [tumblr](http://thebibliosphere.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
